Mocha Joe door latch repair ; Trip to Orat's in Miata

(posted from home)

(This post covers 12 - 30 June, 2013)


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Sunday, 30 June -

I spent the morning on the web while we watched ‘Sunday Morning’ and then rode down to York for my lunch at the new Qdoba.
I had a long telephone conversation with Maypo today, catching up on the news.
I walked-four on the rail-trail from Crist Park to the far end of Rudy Park. I’ve been doing most of my walking here now that the weather turned hot and muggy. The gnats and flies are too bad in the woods at Rocky Ridge on the muggiest days.

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Saturday, 29 June -

Today I rode the GS down to Five Guys for an early lunch, then hit Lowe’s to look for a solution for a rust problem with the fastening points on the GS’s side-bags rack. The fastening points collect water, possibly from rain or perhaps from condensation under the bike’s cover. The bolts securing the rack to the bike are stainless steel but the rack itself is steel and the collected water has led to some rust in those areas. The good news is I can clean the areas up and then cover them with rubber plugs. I bought a pair of 3/4” rubber plugs for this purpose but I’ll have to make some mods to them.
I then took my day’s walk at Rudy Park.
Back home, I browsed Vimeo for new videos without finding much.
That evening we watched ‘Zero Dark Thirty’.

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Friday, 28 June -

Today I rode the Concours down to my urologist’s office to sign a records release. I’ve made an appointment at Johns Hopkins for another opinion on my long-term kidney monitoring. I don’t have symptoms or complaints, I’m just looking to have a nationally-recognized team of urology specialists give me an opinion on whether the monitoring we’ve been doing for the last several years continues to make sense.
I then took the riveter I had bought a few days ago back to Harbor Freight. It had a collection bottle which kept falling off because the threads in the cap had been mal-formed at the time of manufacture.
I also dropped off a financial form at my tax preparer’s office so we can get my taxes done for the year (finally).
I then rode to Rudy Park to walk three miles.
That evening we watched ‘Chasing Ice’, an excellent documentary on the retreating glaciers. We then watched two more ‘Life’ episodes.

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Thursday, 27 June -

This morning I rode up to my dentist’s office in Mechanicsburg for a bit of work. I was back home by 1230 and then mowed the lawn in today’s heat. This one was a tough one for some reason. I took several breaks but felt like I was struggling to get the job done today. I must be over-doing the walking a bit.
No movie today. Labashi wanted to work in her office so I spent my evening on the web....mostly on reddit.

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Wednesday, 26 June -

This morning I installed the outer door handle and door latch on Mocha Joe’s driver-side front door. I had a few problems but overall it went well. By lunch time I had it finished.
I zipped down to Starbucks and then to Rudy Park for a four-mile walk.
That evening we watched ‘Lincoln’, the Steven Spielberg movie. Good one!

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Tuesday, 25 June -

This morning I ran over and picked up the van parts from the Ford dealer. I noticed the latch assembly didn’t look quite right and once I got home I compared it to the old one. Sure enough one of the sub-assemblies, a solenoid, had been installed wrong. I went back to the dealer to ask whether that was an engineering change or simply a mistake. We decided it was the latter and switched it around to the proper orientation.
That afternoon we went to Mom and Dad’s apartment and went to dinner with them at the on-site restaurant in the retirement community. The occasion was a party for all the residents of their floor.
Before going down to supper I walked for a bit in order to get my 10K for the day and did manage to make it.

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Monday, 24 June -

Today I did more research on Mocha Joe’s door and then went to the Ford dealer to order parts. I then rode on in to Lowe’s to get some stainless steel machine screws and a 1/4” heavy duty pop riveter at Harbor Freight. I barely made my 10k steps today. That evening we watched more ‘Life’ episodes.

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Sunday, 23 June -

Today Labashi and I returned home from Orat’s. We started home around 0830 and pulled in the driveway around 1430.
No walk today.

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Saturday, 22 June -

This morning a group of five of us drove down to Ontario County Park near Bristol (NY) for a hike. We walked to the beaver pond and back for a total of five miles, half of it uphill. My Fitbit showed 150 flights of stairs climbed.
The day was a hot one so I took an hour’s nap back at my niece’s house so I could recover for the evening.
After supper we played whiffle-ball and it was hilarious. The little kids did really well, both in their execution (hitting, throwing, running, etc) and in their attitudes. The evening was still very humid so we all got good and sweaty but it was fun.

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Friday, 21 June -

This morning I loaded up the spare parts for the Miata into Labashi’s car and washed the Miata. We then drove the 250 miles to Orat’s house to deliver it to its new owner.
We drove to Orat’s boat house on Lake Canandaigua and took a boat ride with him and the grand-kids. After supper at the pizza shop we drove on to our niece’s home where we were staying for the weekend. I joined my niece and grand-nephew for a four-mile walk that evening.

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Thursday, 20 June -

Today I finalized arrangements for delivering the Miata to Orat and gathered up the books and paperwork for it.

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Wednesday, 19 June -

Today I finished mowing the lawn while Labashi went to the doctor’s office for her annual physical.
That afternoon I walked at Rudy Park to get up to 13.5k steps today.
That evening we watched ‘Justified’ Season Two disk 2---- four episodes of it.

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Tuesday, 18 June -

This morning I took out the outgoing mail and noticed we had small plant peeking over the edge of the roof gutter on the house. What was that doing up there? I got out the ladder and found a small dam of pine needles and tiny little cones in the end of the gutter and cleaned it out.
I took another look at Mocha Joe’s door today and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find a YouTube video or web article detailing the process of replacing the outer door handle and the door latch. After finding nothing I posted a query on ford-trucks.com. Later in the day I received a response but it was pretty generic. Looks like I’m on my own.
That afternoon I mowed half the lawn, then we drove down to Texas Roadhouse for supper. After our ribs, we drove to the nearby Wal-mart to buy a watch for Labashi. The strap on her old one broke the other day and this is her chance to replace it with one that shows the day and not just the date.
We watched two episodes of ‘Life’ Season Two that evening. They must have fired all the writers between seasons.

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Monday, 17 June -

Today I wanted to give the Miata some exercise so drove it in to the coffee shop and then on to Rudy Park. I walked 9000 steps between Rudy and the rail-trail by mid-day.
We drove up to Mom and Dad’s apartment that afternoon and took them to supper at Red Lobster.
That evening we watched ‘Brooklyn Castle’, a very good documentary about chess playing kids.

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Sunday, 16 June -

Today I wrote several emails to Orat and JustJeff on the Miata. It appears they have some interest in it, perhaps for the purpose of turning it into a Spec Miata racer.
I also had a long phone call with Maypo. He seems to be coping with his broken leg pretty well but has a procedure coming up to remove the metalwork used to stabilize the bones.
Rain threatened today so I walked my six-mile creek loop mid-morning today.
We watched the last two episodes of season one of ‘Life’ that evening.

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Saturday, 15 June -

Today I took the Concours to Starbucks and blogged there for an hour or so. I then rode on to Crist Park and walked from there on the rail-trail to Rudy park. I walked on to the top of the hill to add some steps and stair-flights before returning. With the extra time in the sun on my return, I got too much sun and ended up with a bit of a burn.
That evening we watched an episode of ‘Life’.

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Friday, 14 June -

Today I started working on Mocha Joe’s driver-side door. The latch has been acting up and will surely fail one of these days. I just got it opened up and I looked around a bit at the mechanism before lunch.
After lunch Labashi wanted some help with her cypress-trees project. We have a Homelite pole-saw with an 8” electric chain saw on the end for things like this. But the chainsaw is both wonderful and terrible. It’s wonderful for getting to hard-to-reach situations. It’s terrible for the effort needed to keeping running. I suppose part of it’s the nature of using a chain saw in a hard-to-control position but the chain often gets off the track and must be adjusted every few cuts. After a few cuts today the chain came off and damaged itself so that it wouldn’t fit down into the guide bar. I had to run down to Home Depot to get another chain. (And when I noticed the unit has been discontinued, I bought four of them!)
Back home I decided I’d try using a spray-on lithium grease on the chain instead of relying on the oiler or pouring oil onto the chain. The oiler had gone south some time ago so I’ve been oiling it manually.
We were then able to top six trees with no adjustment. I think I’m onto something with this lithium grease.
We worked until 1700 and then showered and drove over to a local pizza shop for hot subs for supper. I only had about 6000 steps at that point so I elected to walk the five miles home. That was a bit of a struggle but I ended up with 18,000 steps for the day.
That evening we watched a National Geographic special on two Aussies who skiied to the south pole and back unsupported. We finished off the night with another ‘Life’ episode. I’d say ‘Life’ is a step above ‘The Closer’ and but not a very high step.

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Thursday, 13 June -

Today I did some research on a medical alert system by Greatcall called 5Star Urgent Response. This one is an interesting twist on the help-I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up systems. It’s a specialized one-button cell phone. Pushing the button connects you to a response center with emergency-trained personnel to handle your problem and connect you to any resources you may need. It can also by the call center (or by anyone the user authorizes) to locate the user (or a lost unit) via a GPS-style function.
It’s a Samsung phone on the Verizon network so of course can have the same connection difficulties as any cell phone. Cost is $49 for the unit plus $35 activation fee and $15 a month subscription. There is no contract for the subscription.
Dad is a user of the Jitterbug phone made by the same people and was looking for something like this for Mom. She has a med-alert necklace issued by the retirement facility but it’s only good at the facility since it’s essentially a small radio that must talk to a local receiver to connect to the phone system. It would be of no use if something happened while away from the community.
I wrote up a long email for Dad and we’ll see. One downside of the system is it, like a cellphone, must be recharged every few days. If the user isn’t committed to keeping it charged (not to mention wearing it when leaving the apartment), it’s not helpful.
I was still feeling the effects of my hilly walk in the heat and bugs yesterday but still wanted to get some steps in. WIth thunderstorms threatening I drove Labashi’s car down to Rudy Park so I could be within easy bail-out distance of the car. I intended to walk the perimeter trails but noticed the threat wasn’t so obvious at the park. I walked the out-and-back rail-trail segment to add three miles and get my minimum 10-k steps for the day.
That evening we watched more ‘Life’ episodes on Netflix Instant.

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Wednesday, 12 June -

After missing so many days walking I had to get out today and push a little. I spent the morning on web-patrol and then headed for Rocky Ridge after lunch.
Today’s walk was the round-the-horn loop starting on the ball-field side. It wasn’t long after entering the woods that I started getting gnats. Today wasn’t all that hot but it was quite humid and I was soon sweated through and frustrated by gnats. The trail is a bit overgrown in the far north-east corner and I couldn’t help but keep a sharp eye out. Last week I was walking through this area and thought, gee, this would be a great place for a snake. A short while later I was startled by a small black snake I came upon suddenly. The main part of its body was invisible in the weeds and only about six inches of it’s head-end were sticking out. I was looking around and just happened to glance down about two steps from it.
This one was actually a cutie. I’ve seen a much bigger one twice now this year, once near the Sue’s Trail sign and one in the clearcut on trail 4. That one-- or those two--- were more than four feet long and quite thick in the body. The latter one was in no hurry to get off the trail and didn’t respond to my clapping my hands or approaching. I just waited a few minutes.
I did seven miles and 100 flights of stairs on the walk, the latter thanks to the steep trails on the north side of the park.
That evening we started watching a new TV series-- ‘Life’. The protagonist is a former police officer who was jailed for murder and freed after 12 years on DNA evidence. Sounds just like ‘Rectify’. We’ll see.

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